


the last one left in line

by Victorionious



Series: V's Round 7 H/C Bingo [4]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Big rocks falling on small people, Cave-In, Community: hc_bingo, Gen, Major Character Injury, Storm Coast (Dragon Age), landslides, trapped together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-29
Updated: 2016-08-29
Packaged: 2018-08-11 21:26:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7908190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Victorionious/pseuds/Victorionious
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A mission on the Storm Coast goes very wrong, and Dorian, Krem, and Sera find themselves trapped in a cave, in various states of disrepair.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the last one left in line

**Author's Note:**

> In which I wanted Dorian and Sera to spend some quality time together, and then I wanted to write some Krem, Cole was gonna be in it but decided to stay on the sidelines, and I sure do have a habit of causing Dorian major injury. For H/C Bingo, as well as myself, and the prompt "Trapped Together," which they are, in fact.
> 
> Will probably have a sequel, or a prequel, or a midquel, or a rewrite of some sort. I really wanted to get this out for h/c bingo though :P. Enjoy!

“Krem de la Krem, huh?” Sera’s taunting voice interrupted what had become a quietly peaceful walk, and already Dorian’s temples began to ache. “So, how long’d it take the big guy to figure that one out?” she asked, nudging the mercenary with her shoulder.

“Not much more than an hour,” Krem admitted, grinning. “He had two eyes when I met him, see?”

Sera burst into laughter, interspersed with exclamations of “You didn’t!” and “That’s _royal_ ,” and Dorian shook his head, wondering both at how one could turn such an important, integral meeting of people who would become so very important to each other into a _punchline_ , and at how he still had the capacity to be shocked by anything Krem did at this point, honestly. He’d spent more than enough time with the man by now to know how he dealt with feelings - if you can’t hit it, joke about it; if you can do both, _excellent._

Why their _dear_ Inquisitor, in all her glowing green wisdom, had chosen _this_ group of mismatched trouble-magnets was beyond Dorian. They were on a mission to the Storm Coast, of course, Dorian, Sera, Cole, the Bull, and his ever so dear Chargers. Something about Venatori, or maybe it was the Red Templars - slavers, perhaps? Something to do with his countrymen, most likely, but Dorian had stopped paying attention to Herah’s probably absolutely riveting brief of the situation as he wondered, not for the first time, why she _always_ picked him for the shittiest of locales.

The qunari were up ahead of the others, commiserating about horn polish or the merits of weapons that are both big and shiny, no doubt, but it was of no matter to Dorian - he was well and truly abandoned, left behind to walk with these _ruffians_ who had long since moved on from vastly understating an important life event to poking guesses at what small furry creature crawled on Dorian’s upper lip and died or whether he made it himself, with magic, and “ _Excuse me_ ,” he hissed, voice rising in pitch as he himself rose to the painfully obvious bait, “That isn’t how facial hair _works_. _Clearly,_ I am the only one here with any appreciation of fine grooming whatsoever - _Maker_ , Sera, you must let me help you with that wreck you probably honestly don’t even bother to call a bob.”

Krem cackled as Dorian moved forward to indicate a rather terribly chopped chunk of hair that made it just past Sera’s ear, and Sera backed away, dramatically putting Krem between herself and the incredulous mage. “Help, he’s saying fancy words again, make him stop!” she squealed, tone giving away her utter delight.

Dorian’s eyes had barely had a chance to roll when the first blast hit, dust hitting his face, the impact - from what, he had no idea - knocking himself, Krem, and Sera back, away from where the Bull and Herah were talking. They’d been far enough ahead not to be harmed, but Dorian still cast a barrier over them anyway, throwing one over Krem and Sera as soon as he was able to once again.

“Chief?” Krem called, drawing his sword as soon as he managed to get to his knees, and waiting for orders, or an enemy, to make itself apparent. Instead, another explosion shook the cliffside, heavy rocks and boulders hurtling towards where they stood. Thinking fast, Dorian shoved the pair backward, into a conveniently placed outcropping that led to what appeared to be a tunnel. Force magic was not his preferred, nor his most studied school of magic, but he’d made the effort to learn a few handy spells. The “throw friends out of imminent danger” one was useful in a pinch, and if this didn’t qualify as a pinch, let alone a handful, Dorian would eat his nonexistent hat. He ran forward after them as the sky fell around them.

Before they could even catch their breath, the little light offered from the entryway of the tunnel was snuffed out, heavy boulders crashing in front of it, into it, knocking parts of the passage itself down even as the trio scampered back, deeper into the unknown cave. The noise was deafening, only light from the barrier that was inexplicably still in place around Sera and Krem easing their way as their eyes adjusted to the sudden darkness, breaths the only audible sound.

“Everyone good?” Krem called out. “Sera? Dorian? Are we all here, are we all _alive_?” It wasn’t panic, exactly, that laced his tone, but it was something very close.

“Frigging fuck!” Sera shouted, confirming her safety. Krem hazarded a smile and glanced around for Dorian. He’d been sure he’d seen the man fall in with them, but he couldn’t find him now, in the dark.

It took a moment, but Dorian replied in a clipped tone, “I’m here.” Short, to the point, and, well. That wasn’t good.

“What _bloody happened?!”_ Sera hissed, and Krem could just barely spot her moving beside him.

Dorian was the one who spoke, however. “We were attacked. I don’t know by what. Either big or powerful. Used the landscape against us.” A deep breath, but Krem could tell it was not deep enough. “I pushed you in here, for safety.”

“Yeah, that’s _the obvious thing,_ ” Sera said, though Krem could tell it pained her. “The _thing_ is - _what_ attacked us?”

“I don’t know,” Dorian whispered. “I didn’t- I don’t know.”

It was quiet for just long enough for Krem to hear a few haggard breaths from a corner, and try to pick his way over. “Dorian, I can’t see you, are you near the entrance?”

“You could say that,” and if that wasn’t ominous Krem didn’t know what was.

“ _Dorian_ ,” Sera whined, grabbing onto Krem’s shoulder as she tripped over a rock. “Do the mage thing - the sparkle thing with your magic and whatever!”

“I can honestly say I have no idea what you’re asking me for, Sera,” Dorian said, and something cold sunk in Krem’s chest at the breathy note in his voice. Something was _wrong_.

“Magelight,” Krem clarified, took a breath, and asked, “Are you alright?”

Dorian laughed. It sounded pained, and Krem winced before the mage even spoke. “Well,” he said, voice just a notch too high. “I suppose we’ll find that out together, won’t we.”

The room lit up, the small light-blue ball of mana that Krem had seen so many times from Dalish, late at night when things just got too dark, had never seemed so bright before. He wished it wasn’t, from what it revealed.

“Shit,” he breathed, and Dorian laughed again, wetly, tears of pain - fear? - mingling with the blood dribbling from a cut on his forehead. Not the worst of his wounds, the unnatural angle of his leg and the scorch marks on his arm could attest to _that_ , but even they paled in comparison to the horrifying presence of a large rock that covered most of the man’s lower abdomen, and the steadily growing puddle of blood beneath. “ _Shit_.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Krem saw Sera squeeze hers shut. Like it was all a bad dream. Krem had lived long enough to know it wasn’t.

“I,” Dorian let out another half-laugh, this one even higher pitched than the last. “I am inclined to mirror that sentiment, actually.” His breaths shallowed, but increased in frequency, and yeah, that was panic. But Krem was a soldier. He’d seen worse.

“Steady,” he said, kneeling next to the - not _dying_ , not yet, but definitely wounded man. “The Chief will get us out soon, you hear me?”

“Right,” Dorian agreed, but his eyes told a different story.

“ _Hey_ ,” Krem insisted, grabbing Dorian’s hand - blood-covered already, and hadn’t they been joking a minute ago? “That Inquisitor of ours is one of the most gifted healers I’ve ever seen. She can heal _the fabric of the Veil_ , do you think she can’t put _you_ back together? And we’ve got _Stitches_.”

“Not the same thing,” Dorian protested, though he clung to Krem’s grip with a strength that almost surprised Krem, but shouldn’t have. “Almost precisely the opposite, in fact.”

“Well, I’m not exactly a _mage_.”

“No, you’re not,” Dorian concurred, and then he coughed, and that was more than Krem wanted to consider, tightening his grip and averting his eyes.

Sera had found her footing, however, and sat cross-legged behind Dorian, easing his head into her lap. “Hey, Magebits, you’re fine, okay? I mean, you’re not, but we’ll get you back soon. Maybe not the gold-shitting, but the breathing part, and the air and maybe I’ll even let you give me a haircut, okay? But only if you make it out of this. None of that muertofucksy crap or whatever it’s called.”

“Mortali _tasi_ ,” Dorian corrected, but his breath was staggered. “And I’m not unconscious yet, am I?”

“And you _won’t be_ ,” Sera hissed, and Krem squeezed his hand tighter around Dorian’s.

Dorian didn’t reply.

It didn’t take long for the Iron Bull, the Inquisitor, Cole, and the rest of the Chargers to find them. Maybe the hurt was loud enough for the spirit to hear, maybe one of them had seen where Dorian had grabbed them and retreated. All that mattered was that, as the Iron Bull hefted the first of the rocks out of the way, Dorian was still breathing. As he hefted the last of the rocks out of the way, Dorian was still breathing.

It didn’t take long, but it had taken long enough for this to be a question.

As Krem had predicted, the Inquisitor was more than able to heal the worst of Dorian’s wounds. Not all of them, he was far from out of the woods, but he was safe enough to be moved. The imminent threat had passed.

The Bull’s eye caught Krem’s as he followed behind Herah, who had lifted Dorian as gently as one would a sick child, and he quirked his head, a silent question. Krem frowned, but nodded. _I’m alright_.

A sad smile, and quick as a flash, Bull darted out of sight, position only given away by Sera’s shrieks as he hefted her into the air to sit on his shoulder. _“Your fucking horns are too big for this to be comfortable!”_ she screamed.

“You like it,” Bull asserted.

Sera rolled her eyes but protested no further.

They’d have to talk, eventually, Krem knew. But for now, they could just breathe.


End file.
